I am sorry and wish I were wrong but it is you who are starry eyed. We are willing to end the Welfare State but we are now outnumbered and out promised. The Welfare State has spoken and their benefactors are setting things up to make more of the Welfare State.
The only reason we continue (we conservatives and workers) to work is that we will not accept defeat and just quit trying to achieve our dreams. The Welfare State are counting on us to continue to strive against decreasing odds we will ever succeed.
I see more and more of my business going for taxes, fees and regulations that the rest of the world we compete with DO NOT PAY. Raising prices is not possible, foreign competitors make money without raising prices. In fact, foreign competitors are pushign prices down. The United States have simply created a non-competitive environment for busines and personal prosperity.
This is where I strongly disagree with you...not even someone like Sean Hannity would come outright and say that we need to end the Welfare State...the Republican Party as a whole wouldn’t advocate it...and even the Heritage Foundation that supplied such graphs are content to reform entitlements. No one I’ve seen publicly articulates ending the Welfare State...I’ve never seen a forcful case presented to the public recently. Anyhow, I don’t believe the Welfare State will end until the country can no longer borrown tax n spend.